how much better is the air 3 compared to the air 2s there's a lot of differences between these
two drones and if you own the air 2s you might be thinking of upgrading but there might be a
couple of reasons you may not want to just yet today I want to break down all the differences
between these two drones to help you make a good decision and decide if you should upgrade or not
because newer is always better not necessarily so the r2s came out a couple of years ago and
it was a breakthrough because they put a one inch sensor that was capable of shooting 5.4 K video
and taking really great 20 megapixel Stills but because it was a one inch sensor it also gave us
really solid and really good low light performance the air 2s does have some slow motion capability
but it's limited to 1080 120 frames a second it does shoot 5K up to 30 frames a second and 4K up
to 60 frames a second as well coming in with a top speed of about 42 miles an hour in sport mode this
is about a 24 to 24 minute flight time depending on how you fly it it'll Ascend at about 13 miles
an hour and descend it about 13 miles an hour so that's not bad flies well it handles great it
has forward upward rear and down facing obstacle sensors so it does have some obstacle avoidance
it's got some good tracking modes it can track you from behind from the side and from in front
but you have to remember there's no side obstacle avoidance so if there are obstacles off to your
side as you're tracking sideways you'll definitely crash your drone like most DJI drones for the last
few years there's lots of smart features in this like active track you can do Master shots you can
do lots of automated shot options like droney Circle Helix all those kinds of things you
can take really good photos with this you can do panoramic photos you can do sphere photos you can
do really Ultra wide photos there's just a lot of options when it comes to this drone and this was
one of my favorite drones purely because of this it's really small and compact when you fold it up
but you still get really great image quality out of it so it was great for hiking and backpacking
and having it drone to document my Adventures here in Alaska but also to capture some really great
video quality and photo quality with this little drone it's uh it's been a staple for me for a long
time now I did sell mine a while back because I moved into the mavic 3 and I also moved now
into the air 3 which we're going to jump into next the air 3 took a cue from its bigger brother the
mavic 3 Pro where it added a second camera so you get two cameras two sensors both of them are one
over 1.3 inch sensors both are capable of shooting 4K up to 60 frames a second and you can shoot slow
motion in 4k up to 100 frames a second or 200 frames a second in 1080P so if you like
shooting slow motion this is definitely a great drone for you but beyond that they've made some
other upgrades the flight time has been increased from about 32 minutes 31 minutes uh what DJI says
which is really like 24 minutes or so in the air 2s to 46 minutes which is what DJI says this is
capable of now my flight testing I'm getting more like 38 minutes depending on how I'm flying maybe
40 if I'm really pushing the battery to the very last minute but uh any over well over 30 minutes
it has substantially more flight time now for a top speed the top speed in this drone has been
increased to 46. I've seen almost 47 miles an hour occasionally but the biggest change has been the
ascent and descent speeds this drone can Ascend at almost 20 miles an hour 19 miles an hour which
is in insanely fast and it descends at 22 miles an hour which is ridiculously fast and a little
bit terrifying if you're not ready for it because of how fast it comes down it really drops Like a
Rock but it's extremely useful if you're trying to get out of the air quickly or if you're just
trying to get back to yourself quickly having that really fast forward and descent speed makes a big
difference when you're bringing the Drone back to you after say flying around a Mountaintop but
another thing that they made a massive upgrade on this drone is 360 obstacle avoidance which
is another example of something they took from its bigger brother the mavic 3 Pro you've got
four cameras that are kind of phased out in so I can cover all around the Drone and then some
downward facing sensors as well so you have 360 degree obstacle avoidance like all drones
the djis produced in the last couple of years this does have a lot of smart features but I
think the best is the active track because it has the newest active track it does really well and
because of that 360 obstacle avoidance you have to worry about crashing it a lot less so if you're
somebody who tracks yourself a lot like I do then having this drone really does make a really nice
difference and you can also track in the 3x camera which makes a really big difference on how you can
compose a shot when it comes to photos because this has a completely different type of sensor in
it it's a quad Bayer sensor which means you get 12 megapixels or 48 megapixel Stills and because this
has an F 1.7 aperture on the main camera F 2.8 on the zoom camera the telephoto camera it gives you
a lot better performance in low light plus DJI added the night mode feature like they have in
the mavic 3 for low light now it's summertime in Alaska I don't have a lot of low light so
I haven't really been able to test that out yet but in the mavic 3 the low light performance is
exceptionally good for a small drone like that in night mode and I from what I've seen from friends
of mine night mode in this is no different this drone is a bit larger when you fold it up which
makes it take up a bit more space in your backpack than the air 2s did but it's not that bad I mean
it's not that much bigger and it still fits nicely a couple of extra batteries than the remote it's
not that big of a deal now really quickly I want to talk to my friends in the European Union this
drone will work much better for you in your places that you fly for two reasons it has ocusync 4
which means you're going to get better signal link even in dense environments because it is
much more robust even though you won't be able to go far as far as we can in the US just because of
the output power ability but because this has a C1 label and the 81 DB label here it actually gives
you a little bit more freedom on where and how you can fly this drone if you're flying under European
Union rules now it's time to break down where the air 2s still wins out over the air 3 and where
the air 3 definitely beats out the air 2s 5.4k is really nice it gives you a really nice image
and even though you don't have the 3x camera you can punch in 1.3 1.4 times if you're working with
a 4K timeline and get some pretty nice punched in shots as you can see here but the air 3 definitely
if you're going to do zooming stuff like that the air 3 wins because of that 3x camera as you can
see here this is the normal camera in 4k even though you don't have the full resolution 5.4
k thing but then when you switch to the 3x camera it just gives you a whole different way to compose
a shot which is really useful depending on the type of subject material you're shooting and if
you want to get close to a subject without being close to a subject and I think that would come in
particularly useful if you fly in the European Union where you have very strict rules on how
close you can be to buildings and people so for video quality I would say they're kind of neck and
neck it depends on what you're going to use them for both of them have great low light performance
the error 2s has really nice low light performance overall there's some noise when you start getting
up there in ISO but you can clean it up nicely with something like neat video you can see these
shots that I took well after Sunset when I first got the air 2s but the air 3 has a new night mode
which does a really fantastic job in really low light especially if you're going to fly around
cities and stuff like that it just it just does a spectacular job and especially because now you
have that F 1.7 versus the F 2.8 on the air 2s the F 1.7 on the air 3 gives you a fair amount more
light a whole stop worth basically um which is a lot because then you're talking about going from
say ISO 3200 to 1600 or 6400 to 3200 that makes a big difference a big way the air 3 and the air 2s
differ is when it comes to slow motion video if you're wanting to shoot slow motion then the air
3 definitely wins hands down because you can shoot up to 4K 100 frames a second or up to 200 frames
a second in 1080 where the error 2s is limited to 120 frames a second in 1080. so in video specs it
it depends on what you're doing but I would say right now marginally I would give this to the air
3 but only really because it has the two cameras the video out of the air 2s is still really solid
and looks great it's exceptionally nice to grade with the d-log 10-bit format it just it's a great
great code deck and it looks really good when you work with it in post but if you're somebody who
takes a lot of photos with drones then there's a lot more to discuss honestly I still feel like the
air 2s has better photo quality overall it just the Raw photos coming out of this have a really
nice quality to them they're 20 megapixels but it's a true 20 megapixels it's not a quad Bayer
sensor you're using every single diode exactly the way it's built where the quad Bayer sensor and I'm
not claiming to understand completely quad Bayer sensors but switching between 12 and 48 yes you
get more detail in 48 and it looks a little better or a little more detail in my opinion though it's
not like massively more like four times more detailed it's really hard to make that call
another thing I've noticed is that with the Optics and I'm sure this is something DJI can fix in a
firmware update but there is some fringing on a lot of different things if you see the shot I
took in the water here I had to run the fringing all the way over to get rid of the purple Fringe
on the highlights there as you can see so that's something to think about I don't run into that
issue with the air 2s nearly as much and I never did it just produces really nice photos straight
out so I'd say if you're purely or using these a lot for photos and you already own the ear to us
it stick with the r2s it's still a super solid great drone the air three though if you're doing
more things where you're trying to stay away from things if you're doing Wildlife or something like
that then the air 3 is fantastic because you can get a lot closer with that new 3x camera the 70
millimeter camera it gives you a lot more punched in field of view and you also still get 12 or 48
megapixel photos which while yes you have to work with them a little more you get raw photos you
can work with them and they can turn out really nice really great looking photos in the end then
we come to the speed the flight control and the characteristics of these true two drones one the
air three is gonna beat the air 2s easily because it has a higher top speed of 46 miles an hour you
can Ascend at almost five miles an hour faster and you can descend at basically double the speed that
the air 2s can which is insane now that's not to say the r2s is bad but it does top out 41 42 miles
an hour your ascent and descent speeds are a fair amount slower and you can see as I'm trying to get
over this Ridge here it took quite a bit longer to get up and over it compared to fear three
and because this the Earth 3 is just that it's two years newer than the air 2s roughly I think
about two years maybe a year and a half something like that it does have a much finer tuned level
of control over the way it feels and over the way it flies in the last couple of years DJI has made
massive improvements on weight the way the Drone handles when you're flying especially when you're
flying in sport mode and stuff like that but it just flies better it feels better it responds
better to your control inputs than the air 2s does it's hard to describe it and unless you spend a
ton of time flying drones like I do because I do this pretty much every day professionally
um it's it'd be hard to really describe it but you can just you feel much more confident with
your three than the air 2s as far as what it's going to do when you make a control input but
the biggest difference between these two is the flight time to get the shots that you've seen in
this video basically I went through two and a half batteries on the air 2s I went through one battery
on the air three that's a huge difference and I'm not saying that there's like more
than double the flight time um you know that I mean I wasn't being super precise on how I was
flying these I was trying to match up shots and sometimes I had one going sitting longer than
the other but the air 3 has it's not double but it's it's 30 40 percent more flight time it's a
lot more flight time um it's almost double the flight time in some cases depending on how you
fly but it is substantially more flight time and because of the o4 the ocusync 4 control
I mean you can fly this well beyond light you can fly either one of these while we online a
site but the air 3 holds the signal much stronger if you're flying in dense RF environments like
cities or if you're in the European Union where your output power is very limited
um if you're flying in dense trees where there's going to be signal occlusion occasionally as you
dip in and out behind trees the air 3 is going to stay much more solid on its signal to the
controller than the air 2s another thing the air 3 has is you can get these wild Parallax shots
with that 70 millimeter camera which just makes it look absolutely insane and because it tracks
in that camera as well it gives you a whole bunch of options on how you want to compose
a shot but another huge way the air 3 beats the air 2s is the up tilt angle on the gimbal as you
can see here you can go up to 60 degrees on the air 3 where you're limited to about 24 degrees
on the air 2s now in forward flight even in sport mode that doesn't make a huge difference you can
see here I'm hitting almost 40 miles an hour on the air 2s and the gimbal is not dropping
but if you hit a gust of wind enough where the Drone has to compensate the gimbal might drop
but with year three you can get these crazy up look or up tilt shots like this waterfall or
this waterfall and uh it's still flying fully in sport mode if you dare which I wouldn't recommend
but here you can see where I'm flying fully in sport mode 46 and I'm still able 46 miles
an hour and I'm still able to look up up to 24 degrees which is insane and mind-blowing
and there is a slight difference sound wise and that comes partly that's why the air 3 has a
label for the European Union and why the air 2s does not well that and this was produced a while
back but here's some differences between the two drones in the sound so this is an audio test the
Drone is about six feet away from the camera I'm standing exactly even with the Drone and now I'm
about three feet from the camera and the Drone is about two feet behind me so there you go for audio
so this is the air three about six feet away from the camera I'm directly level with it right now
and then if I come over here I'm about three feet away from the camera and the
air three is about two feet away from me so same distance this is how it sounds
foreign
comes down to the biggest factor which is price the air 2s starts at 799 dollars up to a thousand
and fifty dollars depending on sales for the fly more combo where the air 3 starts at a thousand
ninety nine dollars and goes up to fifteen hundred and forty nine dollars for the fly more combo so
that might be a big determining factor for you at the end of the day if you own the air 2s would
you have to upgrade to the R3 no not really if you're happy with the image quality coming out
of this it's still a fantastic drone still takes great photos great video and flies really well
if your air 2s is starting to come to the end of its life or if you need to get more flight time
you don't want to carry around five batteries versus three batteries then the air three is a
really solid upgrade and in most ways the air 3 is a big substantial upgrade to the air 2s is it
worth it for you to upgrade uh it's it's really up to you how you use these and how you work for
me this is a worthwhile upgrade because of what I do in my day work with companies with Brands as
I'm running around Alaska hiking exploring working with helicopters all that sort of stuff then yes
this is worth it because of the higher speed the considerably longer flight time and the better
signal link I still love the image coming out of the air 2s though but I do want to know are you
going to upgrade from the r2s to the R3 or are you in the market for the R3 I'll be putting out
some more videos comparing the air 3 to the mavic 3 and the air 3 to the Mini 3 Pro shortly on this
channel so definitely stay tuned for those um the air three incredible drone DJI has done a
great job with this thing and I'm looking forward to seeing what sort of stuff I can produce with
it in the future and yes a pretty spectacular air 3 review will be coming on this channel but next
you're going to want to watch this video right here I'll see you over there as always if you have
questions ask me in the comments below or you can join my live stream which happens Wednesday nights
at 4 pm Alaska time 8 PM Eastern where we can have more of a conversation and maybe answer questions
that I wasn't able to answer in this video I'll see you again soon in the next video cheers